What Candidates Wish Their Staffing Firms Would Do

Every staffing firm offers their candidates a unique experience. Some firms pride themselves on a personal touch; others might be more focused on serving clients with bulk hires. But as competition for top talent heats up, the candidate experience becomes an important metric that can separate good firms from great ones.

There’s plenty of opportunity: According to a Talent Trends report by LinkedIn, only 18 percent of talent thinks of a staffing firm when looking for new job opportunities. Candidates are more likely to turn first to job boards and their own networks. And while staffing firms actually have a pretty good reputation — LinkedIn found that almost three-quarters of candidates said they’ve had a good experience with a staffing firm — there are clearly ways to improve the candidate experience.

Wondering what your candidates wish you would do? Start with these steps to improve their experience with you.

Get to the Point

When you first reach out to potential hires with prospective jobs for them, how do you do it? That initial contact must be brief but informative to keep candidates interested. According to LinkedIn’s research, candidates who are contacted by a staffing firm are most interested in answers to these questions:

What does the role entail?

Why are you reaching out to them specifically?

What is the estimated salary range?

To keep the candidate experience positive from the start, take a look at the initial messages you’re sending to potential candidates and determine whether you’re sharing the information they want. Do your messages talk about the role and its responsibilities, or do they meander around in an effort to get the candidate to express interest? A candidate can’t make a decision on whether the position is a good fit unless they have all the information, so make sure you’re sharing it.

Provide Job Opportunities

It seems obvious, but it’s worth restating: Candidates want jobs. They come to staffing firms because they want help in getting hired. A survey by the TechServe Alliance says jobs top the list of things candidates want when working with staffing companies.

Hopefully this isn’t a surprise to you or your recruiters. What it does mean is that you’ll need to examine your client base and ensure you have the kinds of employers on your list that can provide opportunities and development for the talent you’re trying to place. Candidates want high-quality opportunities as well, so you’ll need to invest more effort in identifying those hard-to-find but perfect fits for candidates. Develop a rich variety of opportunities, with an eye toward the particular market or niche you specialize in.

Show Stability

Candidates, like clients, appreciate consistency. But it can be too easy for staffing firms to “set it and forget it” when it comes to candidates who are hired. For example, according to the TechServe Alliance survey, IT and engineering professionals see staffing as less stable than traditional employment, even though they reported getting more opportunities and more high-quality job possibilities through staffing firms.

Building long-term relationships is key to improving the candidate experience. Candidates don’t want to have to start from square one every time they interact with you, and they don’t want to be the ones reaching out when an assignment is wrapping up. Ensure that your process identifies job candidates who are close to being finished with one job, and that it minimizes their downtime between assignments.

Communicate More Effectively

Communication is a huge opportunity for staffing firms in all industries. According to a survey by CareerBuilder and Inavero, almost half of candidates reported feeling like they were in a “black hole” when working with a staffing firm. They didn’t know how the hiring process was going or what the next step was, and more than 40 percent said they weren’t contacted when they didn’t get the job after their interview.

Human contact is important throughout the hiring process — especially if you’re the one who reached out first to the job candidate. Leaving people in the dark isn’t just rude, it’s bad for business. Examine your people processes to ensure candidates get the follow-up they deserve after they’ve made contact with a hiring manager and started the interview process. That high-touch level of service will boost candidates’ experience with you and burnish your reputation among staffing firms.

Offer Coaching

Candidates these days expect their staffing firms to do more than simply find them jobs and set them up with interviews. They’re looking for advocates and teachers who can make them stronger candidates in the long run, or even provide career counseling.

According to the CareerBuilder/Inavero survey, only 10 percent of candidates said they got any kind of career coaching from staffing firms, and less than 30 percent were coached on how to be more effective in interviews.

As part of your candidate process, identify how you can provide feedback on resumes and interviewing techniques. Webinars and classes can give candidates the interview coaching they crave as they look for jobs. Work with consultants or train your own employees to provide better career services and guidance through the career cycle. There’s a large opportunity here to add value to the candidate experience — how can you help them be stronger candidates?

Look for Consulting Placements

In addition to coaching opportunities, the TechServe Alliance survey found that IT and engineering professionals are concerned about staying relevant in today’s fast-moving job market. While all industries are changing rapidly, technology in particular is full of disruption, and some IT/engineering professionals may be feeling uncertain about their prospects.

Staffing firms can enhance tech candidates’ experience by looking for more opportunities for them to work across different industries and projects in consulting capacities, the TechServe Alliance says. Working as consultants rather than employees can add variety to their experiences, enhance their skills and make them more attractive to more hiring organizations in the long run. Examine your client base and candidate pool and determine whether there are options for consulting relationships on both sides.

Keep It Interesting

In addition to wanting a wider array of opportunities, tech candidates in particular are hoping to get exciting work. No one wants a boring job, and it’s important to provide a good fit for candidates that can give them more opportunities. Your recruiters may get hung up on bulk placements or simply getting people into positions without putting deeper thought into what the position will do for the candidate’s long-term prospects.

Keep in mind that candidates want challenging projects that keep their skills relevant and offer them a chance to shine. While there are times when bulk placements for routine work are necessary, look for ways to expand your client base to provide dynamic opportunities your candidates will want.

Get Mobile

Have you checked your company’s website on your phone lately to see how it looks on a mobile device? According to a survey by CareerBuilder and Inavero, more than 70 percent of candidates have looked for a job using a smartphone and almost 90 percent have done so from a tablet. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile devices, candidates are going to lose interest quickly.

Mobile optimization is a must for any business website — but if you want to provide an outstanding customer experience, your mobile website has to be easy to use and provide the information your candidates are looking for. If you haven’t done so lately, give your website a design overhaul to ensure you’re holding onto those potential candidates who are looking for jobs on mobile devices.

What Comes Next?

As we noted earlier, staffing firms generally make a good impression on those who use them to find jobs. A good reputation is hard to build, but once you’ve got it, you can rely on your satisfied job hunters to pass along word of their outstanding experiences. Keeping the perspective of your job seekers in mind at all times and learning more about what they want from working with a staffing firm will help you provide a top level of service that keeps everyone satisfied.

Focusing on the details of the candidate experience is a great way to differentiate yourself from your competitors, find top talent with the skills your hiring clients need, and become a staffing leader in your specialty or area.

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We understand that it’s not business as usual for staffing professionals at this time. Bullhorn is committed to enabling you to continue to provide a positive experience for your candidates and clients.

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Jonathan Novich

SVP of Product and Salesforce

Jonathan Novich is SVP of Product and Salesforce for Bullhorn, the global leader in CRM and operations software for the recruitment industry. A staffing technology innovator, he has developed broad and deep product and technical experience consulting to staffing firms over the past 15 years. Jonathan has acted as an independent consultant for some of the largest staffing companies in the world and advised companies on acquisition targets.
At Bullhorn, he oversees product initiatives as more than 10,000 staffing companies rely on Bullhorn’s cloud-based platform to drive sales, build relationships, and power their recruitment processes from end to end. He graduated with honors from Princeton University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Engineering in Computer Science and a certificate in Operations Research.

Ed Holmes

SVP, Workforce & Revenue Cloud

As Bullhorn’s SVP of Workforce & Revenue Cloud, Ed drives the company’s middle office strategy and overall product offering. Ed joined Bullhorn as part of the Peoplenet acquisition where he spent 7 years as the President/CEO leading up to the acquisition in late 2017. Prior to joining the Bullhorn family, Ed has spent his career designing, building and managing technology solutions for numerous Fortune 500 companies. He has been a Partner in an ERP-focused consulting firm, a CIO for a global pharmaceutical company, a supply-chain leader for a retail company and the leader of a services company from its inception to $50MM in revenue. Ed was born in Florida but has spent the last 20+ years in Atlanta, GA. Ed loves to play golf, tennis and basketball and occasionally gets out kite boarding when the wind is just right.

Ed holds a Bachelor of Science in Industrial and Systems Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and an MBA from Goizueta Business School at Emory University.

Brian Sylvester

CFO

Brian Sylvester is Bullhorn’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) with more than 15 years of financial leadership experience. Brian leads Bullhorn’s financial, accounting, and legal functions. Prior to becoming CFO, Brian spent three years at Bullhorn in various finance & accounting roles. Prior to Bullhorn, Brian was Corporate Controller at Pegasystems, a global provider of business process management software where he scaled the finance organization during a period of 2.5x revenue growth. Brian began his career at PricewaterhouseCoopers in their technology audit practice.

Brian is a CPA in Massachusetts, has a Master’s of Science in Accounting from Boston College and a Bachelor’s of Science in Accounting from Bryant University.

Tamsyn Attiwell

SVP, Customer Success

As the Senior Vice President of Customer Success, Tamsyn leads Bullhorn’s Services and Customer Success teams. She is responsible for the successful delivery of all products and services globally and is committed to creating and maintaining incredible long-term customer experiences in the Candidate to Cash process. Tamsyn has been delivering implementations for over 25 years with companies such as SAP, Ariba, Zuora and Apttus: specializing in HR, Payroll, Procurement and Quote To Cash capability. She trained as a software engineer after studying Maths, Statistics, and Computing in England.

Art Papas

Founder & CEO

Art Papas is the Founder and CEO of Bullhorn, Inc, the global leader in software for the staffing & recruitment industry. Art was the original architect of Bullhorn’s flagship Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system, which now helps more than 8,000 companies around the world run their businesses. Art is the Chairman of the Board at Career Collaborative, an organization that teaches unemployed and underemployed adults how to build careers that change lives and strengthen families. In 2014, Ernst & Young named Art an EY Entrepreneur of the Year Award Winner in New England. Prior to starting Bullhorn, Art started his career as a software engineer at Thomson Reuters. Art is a graduate of Tufts University, holding a Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics.

Matt Fischer

President and Chief Technology Officer

As President and CTO, Matt leads Bullhorn’s architectural, technical, and software design and development efforts. He also directs the product management team’s work defining product strategy, and global customer support and success. Since joining Bullhorn in 2004, Matt has held a variety of leadership positions managing the growth of various technical and services teams, including Vice President of Professional Services. Prior to Bullhorn, Matt worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers, specializing in systems process assurance for such companies as Fidelity and State Street Global Advisors. Matt holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration with a concentration in Finance from Boston University’s School of Management.

Mike Restivo

Chief Revenue Officer

As Bullhorn’s Chief Revenue Officer, Mike drives the company’s global revenue growth. Mike was one of the first 15 team members of Bullhorn Inc. in Boston and relocated to London in 2010 to start up the International team. In his 6 years in London, Mike drove regional expansion into the Netherlands, Germany, Singapore, and Australia. He has supplied cloud-based solutions to recruitment consultancies in over 50 different countries worldwide for the past 10 years. Mike was born and raised in the Boston-area where he grew up an avid sport fan. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Business Management from Babson College.

Kristin Machacek Leary

Chief People Officer

Kristin oversees Bullhorn’s human resources function in her role as Chief People Officer. Kristin joined Bullhorn in 2020 and is responsible for helping Bullhorn scale to the next level, build leadership capacity, and accelerate growth in global markets. Kristin brings to the role over 20 years of experience leading high-potential companies through breakthrough growth and brings a depth of knowledge in organizational design, scalable processes, and flexible systems culled from some of the most successful global companies in the world. Leary joins Bullhorn from Hitachi Vantara, where she served as Chief Human Resources Officer, and before that she worked as Chief Human Resources Officer at Forcepoint, a private equity-backed company with 3,000 employees operating in more than 45 countries. She has also worked at high-growth enterprise technology companies like Alphatec Spine, Boston Scientific, and Hewlett-Packard.

Peter Linas

Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and International

Peter oversees Bullhorn’s international operations across EMEA and APAC in his role as Executive Vice President of Corporate Development and International. Peter joined Bullhorn in 2009 and was responsible for its highly successful UK launch. In addition to growing the international team to over 50 staff and establishing Bullhorn as the UK’s market leading recruitment software in fewer than three years, Peter has expanded Bullhorn’s reach into EMEA and APAC and achieved a user base of more than 10,000 international users. Prior to taking on the launch of Bullhorn in the UK, Peter spent 20 years working in the recruitment industry and held a number of senior director roles before moving into the technology space.

Ryan Murphy

Executive Vice President of Enterprise and Salesforce

Ryan Murphy is the Executive Vice President of Enterprise and Salesforce. He began his 10-year career at Bullhorn as a finance and sales intern, affording him a 360-degree view of the software-as-a-service industry and Bullhorn’s business model. Prior to his current role, Ryan served as an Enterprise Account Executive where he honed his customer-first leadership style and championed Bullhorn’s offerings to its most strategic clients. Today, Murphy is charged with leading the enterprise strategy and go to market for both Bullhorn and Bullhorn for Salesforce, enabling customers to maximize their investments on both platforms and deliver an incredible experience to their customers and candidates. Ryan has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Administration from Boston University.